“Islam gave women rights 1400 years ago!!!” tweets the privileged egg account to anyone criticizing gender inequality in predominantly Muslim countries.
That phrase has been used so many times to dismiss feminist ideologies and progressive thoughts, but exactly how true is it?
While Islam certainly granted women rights they didn’t have during Jahaliyyah (“ignorance’), the pre-Islamic era, using that as an excuse to dismiss modern-day issues is not only ridiculous but hypocritical. We need to distinguish the differences between faith and culture – just because a religion or ideology aims to achieve equality, does not necessarily guarantee that all followers of that religion will adhere to those same beliefs.
I think that although religion is the center of Islamic culture, society cherry-picking and emphasizing what benefits a certain group while disregarding the parts which may challenge patriarchal systems has resulted in many of the issues that we associate with religion today. Many of the principles and practices that are held high in Islamic societies actually contrast with Islam itself! An example of this is how common, tolerated, accepted and even encouraged slut-shaming is. If you’ve ever lived in such societies, then you’d know that it doesn’t matter whether you’re covered from head to toe or not. Chances are you’ve experienced some form of slut-shaming either way! You might have even been criticized for things that aren’t even that revealing or “provocative” in the first place, like white embroidery on your abaya (a loose garment worn by some women in the Muslim world). These forms of slut-shaming masquerade as advise used to “clean up” society, but that’s really just code for giving men the upper-hand and automatically assuming that women exist solely to please them while giving them a sick sense of control over their bodies and choices. Many of those criticizing women over the littlest things use the excuse of them being too “distracting”, “indecent” and “immodest”, that they’re attracting the “wrong kind of attention” to justify why they think they have the right to police women around and tell them what to wear and what not to wear. They blame women and hold them responsible rather than blaming themselves for sexualizing them in the first place.
When the Prophet Muhammed was traveling with his cousin, Fadil ibn Abbas, a woman stopped him to ask a question. She was described as attractive, explaining why his cousin couldn’t stop staring at her. The Prophet turned his cousin’s face away in response. He did not tell the woman to cover up. He did not tell her she looked too tempting. He simply averted his cousin’s gaze.
So what make you think you can use Islam as an excuse to capture power and authority that doesn’t belong to you in the first place?
A lot of Muslim majority countries still hold the belief that a woman’s worth is defined by her relation to men (e.g. how “good” of a wife she is). The belief varies from being a connotation at best to a blatant, indisputable fact at worst. This leads to child marriages and devaluing the importance of girls’ access to education. Many women are also discouraged from working or pursuing higher education to be a stay-at-home mum or simply cause parents do not see the need for a woman to gain independence through that. While many use religion as an excuse for biases and cultural beliefs, a closer look will tell you that it’s actually rather invalid. The prophet’s wife, Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, was one of the most successful businesswomen in a male-dominated society.
Religion has been used as an excuse to silence women’s voices for way, way too long, and it’s time for it to stop. Society “preaching” forcefully over women don’t come from a place of faith but rather a regime based on the need to control women and resist their push for independence and growth. While I do recognize that religion and culture are different, the fact that they go hand-in-hand at times is undeniable and they’ll continue to affect each other. Assuming that sexism doesn’t exist because religion does is a dangerous practice, and one that practically stops progress altogether.
While religion is very personal, and while each individual’s interpretation of both religion and feminism may vary, I think that the two are not mutually exclusive.
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